Ni{ i Vizantija XIV 315

Pascal Androudis

DOUBLE-HEADED EAGLES ON EARLY (11TH-12TH C.) MEDIEVAL TEXTILES: ASPECTS

OF THEIR ICONOGRAPHY AND SYMBOLISM

Our paper examines certain aspects of the iconography and symbolism of the double-headed eagles which are displayed on eleventh-twelfth centuries me-dieval luxury silk textiles (fig. 1). Many specialists of oriental (mainly Persian) and Islamic textiles of Spain, as well as other eminent scholars, including O. von Falke,1 P. Ackerman,2 R.B. Serjeant,3 A.U. Pope,4 G. Wiet,5, F.E. Day,6, M.-T. Picard-Schmitter,7, F. May,8 A.C. Weibel,9 F. Kühnel10, E. Grube11 , H. Corbin,12

1 O. von Falke, Kunstgeschichte des Seidenweberei, 2 vols, Berlin 1913 (reprinted Berlin 1921 and Berlin 1936).

2 P. Ackerman, “Textiles of the Islamic Periods. A. History. The Early Islamic and Seljūq Periods”, in: A Survey of Persian Art. From Prehistoric Times to the Present, ed. by A.U. Pope, vol. III (1939); Idem, Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art, N. York 1940.

3 R.B. Serjeant, “Material for a history of Islamic textiles up to the Mongol con-quests”, Ars Islamica 9 (1942), 54- 92; 10 (1943), 71- 104; 11-12 (1944-46), 98- 145; 15- 16 (1951), 29- 85.

4 A.U. Pope, Masterpieces of Persian Art, N. York 1945. 5 G. Wiet, Soieries persanes, Cairo 1948; Idem, “Miss Day’s Reply”, Ars Islamica

15-16 (1951), 244-250. 6 F.E. Day, “Review of G. Wiet, Soieries persanes, Cairo 1948”, Ars Islamica 15-16

(1951), 231-244. 7 M.-T. Picard-Schmitter, “Scènes d’Apothéose sur des Soieries provenant de Rayi”,

Artibus Asiae 14, no 4 (1951), 306-341. 8 F. May, Silk Textiles from Spain. Eighth to Fifteenth Century, New York 1957. 9 A.C. Weibel, 2000 Years of Silk Weaving, N. York 1944; Idem, Two Thousand

Years of Textiles, N. York 1952. 10 F. Kühnel, “Some Observations on Buyid Silks”, Survey 14:3808-89. 11 E.J. Grube, “Two Hispano-Islamic Silks”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bul-

letin, vol. XIX, number 3 (November 1960), 77-85. 12 H. Corbin, Terre céleste et corps de résurrection de l’Iran mazdéen à l’Iran shi’ite,

Paris 1960.

316 Pascal Androudis

M. Lemberg,13 G. Vial,14 D.G. Shepherd,15 N. Kajitani,16 M. Lombard,17 M. Campos,18 D. King,19 S.S. Blair, J.M. Bloom and A.E. Wardwell,20 C. Partearroyo Lacaba,21 P. Baker,22 F.V. Fernandez,23 A. Cutler,24 dealt with the diverse prov-enances, the historical contextualisation and the possible allocation of these fab-rics to the different workshops which created them. These textiles survive in relatively good condition, mostly because they were included in medieval church treasures.

It is admitted by all scholars that the double-headed eagle emblem (like the usual single-headed eagle) functioned as a major symbol of power. Originated in the East, it was used in Mesopotamian art, during the Sumerian and espe-cially in Hittite eras.25 Later on, we find some of its rarest representations, as the

13 M. Lemberg, “The Buyid Silks of the Abbegg Foundation, Berne”, Bulletin de Liaison du Centre International d’Étude des Textiles Anciens [in the following pages: BCIE-TA], no 37 (1973), 28-43.

14 G. Vial, “Technical Studies on the Buyid Silk Fabrics of the Abegg Foundation-Berne”, BCIETA, no 37 (1973), 70-80.

15 D.G. Shepherd, “The Hispano Islamic textiles in the Cooper Union Collection”, Chronicle of the Museum for the Arts of Decoration of the Cooper Union Museum 1 (1943), 355- 440; Idem, “The Third Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvó”, The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39 (January 1952); D.G. Shepherd, “Three Textiles from Raiy”, Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 50/4 (april 1963), 65-70; Idem, “Technical Aspects of Buyid Silks”, in: A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present XIV (Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the International Association for Iranian Art and Archaeology, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, April 24 to May 3), London, New York 1967, 3090-3099; Idem, “Medieval Persian Silks in Fact and Fancy (A Refutation of the Riggisberg Report)”, BCIETA, no 39-40 (1974), 1-239; Idem, “The Archaeology of the Buyid Textiles”, Archaeological Textiles (Irene Emery Roundtable on Museum Textiles, 1974, Proceedings), ed. P.I. Fiske, Washington D.C., Textile Museum, 1975; Idem, “In De-fence of the Persian Silks”, BCIETA, no 37 (1973), 143-145.

16 N. Kajitani, “The Physical Characteristics of Silk Generally Classified as ‘Buyid’ (10-13th Century AD. Persia), in: Irene Emery Roundtable on Museum Textiles, 1974 Pro-ceedings, op. cit., 191-204.

17 M. Lombard, Les textiles dans le monde musulman. VIIe-XIIe siècle, París, 1978,18 M. Campos Kent, Figurative Hispano-Arabic Textiles of the Almoravid and Almo-

had dynasties: Historical and Ideological Implications of their Design and Iconography, MA Thesis, Ohio State University 1980.

19 D. King, “The Textiles found near Rayy about 1925”, BCIETA, no 65 (1987), 34-37. 20 S.S. Blair, J.M. Bloom and A.E. Wardwell, “Reevaluating the Date of the “Buyid”

Silks by Epigraphic and Radiocarbon Analysis”, Ars Orientalis 22 (1992), 1-41. 21 C. Partearroyo Lacaba, “Almoravid and Almohad Textiles”, in: Al-Andalus. The

Art of Islamic Spain, ed. by J.D. Dodds, The Metropolitan Museum of New York, N. York 1992, 105-113.

22 P. Baker, Islamic Textiles, London, British Museum Press, 1995.23 F.V. Fernandez, “Algunas reflexiones sobre el studio arqueológico de los tejídos de

origen o procedencia andalusí”, in: Tejer y vestir. De la antigüedad al Islam, ed. M. Marín, Madrid 2001, 385-387.

24 A. Cutler, “Imagination and Documentation. Eagle silks in Byzantium, the Latin West and ‘Abbāsid Baghdad”, BZ 96.1 (2003), 67- 72.

25 See C. Lebrun, “L’aigle bicéphale sur les sceaux inscrits de scribes dans le monde

Ni{ i Vizantija XIV 317

one from Sassanian Iran, on a bronze dish, now preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Teheran (fig 2).26 An unusual representation of a double-headed eagle can be found in a fresco from a grotto of Qyzil in Chinese Turkestan (fig. 3)27 and this heraldic type of representation is, as R. Wittkower noted an offspring “ … of the same Western Asiatic prototypes, colored by Persian influ-ences …”.28

In Byzantium, apart from some very rare representations of this imagined (not realistic) bird, datable to eleventh century (a stone slab from Beroe [Stara Zagora] and a marble slab from Martyropolis [Miafarquin or Mayyafariqin] in Asia Minor)29 and certainly due to oriental influences,30 double-headed ea-gles appear only by the time of the reign of the Paleologan dynasty, that is to say after the end of thirteenth century.31 Imperial byzantine silks with sin-gle-headed eagles survive in relatively small number in Western Europe (in Brixen/Bressanone, Cathedral Treasury,32 in St. Knud, Odense, Denmark,33 in

hittite”, Res Antiquae 1, Bruxelles, 2004, 133-148; J.D. Chariton, “The Mesopotamian Origins of the Double-Headed Eagle”, UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research XIV (2011), 1-13.

26 Photograph by A. Davey. 27 See A. Grünwedel, Altbuddhistische Kultstätten in Chinesisch-Turkistan, Bericht

über archäologische Arbeiten von 1906 bis 1907 bei Kuca, QaraSahr und in der Oase Tur-fan, Berlin 1912, 54, 129; S. F. Oldenburg, Russkaya Turkestanskaya ekspedicija 1909-1910, Berlin 1914; A. von Le Coq, Bilderatlas zur Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Mittel-Asiens, Berlin 1925, particularly frescoes at Qyzil, p. 101, fig. 236 et 237; Z. de Takács, “L’Art des grandes Migrations en Hongrie et en Extrême-Orient”, Revue des Arts Asiatiques VII, fasc.2 (1931), 33; R. Wittkower, “Eagle and Serpent”, Journal of the Warburg Institute II (1938-1939), re-printed in: Idem, Allegory and the Migration of Symbols, Hampshire 1977, 21, fig. 15.

28 R. Wittkower, Eagle and Serpent, 21. 29 For the slab of Beroe (actual Stara Zagora), now in the Archaeological Museum of

Sofia, see: La Bulgarie médiévale. Art et civilisation (Catalogue of the Exposition in Grand Palais, Paris, 13 June-18 August 1980), Paris 1980, 104-105, fig. 151; J. Alchermès, “Two stone slabs”, in: The Glory of Byzantium. Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era. A.D. 843-1261 (Catalogue of the Exposition of Byzantine Art in Metropolitan Museum, New York), N. York 1997, 326-327, n° 220 B. For the slab of Beroe (actual Miafarquin), now in the British Museum, see: J. Strzygowski- M. Van Berchem, Amida, Heidelberg 1910, 365-366.

30 A. Soloviev, “Les emblèmes Héraldiques de Byzance et les Slaves”, Semina-rium Kondakovianum 7 (Prague 1935), 119-164. On the presence of the “exotic” elements in Middle Byzantine Art see A. Walker, Exotic Elements in Middle Byzantine Secular Art, 843-1204 C.E., unpublished Doctoral Thesis, 2004, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Idem, “Islamicising Motifs en Byzantine Lead Seals: Exoticising Style and the Expression of Identity”, in: The Medieval History Journal 15, 2 (2012), 385-413.

31 See P. Androudis, “Chapiteau de la crypte de la basilique de Saint-Démétrios à Thes-salonique avec emblèmes de la famille des Paléologues”, Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας της Ελλάδος, period Δ΄, t. ΛΓ΄ (2012), 131-140, with all the bibliography on the subject.

32 Said to be the chasuble of Bishop Albuin (975-1006). See A. Cutler, Eagle Silks in Byzantium, 69.

33 In this silk the eagles are enclosed in roundels. The fabric was probably sent to Odense from Apulia by Ethele, St. Knud’s first wife, as a shroud for his body in 1101. See Byzantium. Late Antique and Byzantine Art in Scandinavian Collections, exhibition cata-logue, ed. J. Fleischer, Ø. Hjort and M.B. Rasmussen, Copenhagen 1996, no 91 (J. Veller).

318 Pascal Androudis

the Musée Saint-Germain, the former Abbaye de Saint-Germain in Auxerre, France34). Unpublished pieces from byzantine eagle silks are preserved in ca-thedral treasures and museums35 .

On the other hand, this fabulous being is attested in Islamic art in various periods. In twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it was given particular importance by the Seljuk Turks and the Turcoman atabegs (princes) of Rum or Anatolia (Asia Minor) and the Turcoman Zangid princes of Iraq, who made the double-headed eagle their standard.36

It is generally accepted that Muslim culture in the East and West, has greatly benefited from Iran’s influence in the domain of decorative arts. Persia acquired symbolic and decorative motifs from the most ancient civilizations (such as the emblem of double-headed eagle), filtered and analyzed them, and then propagated them across the entire Mediterranean basin. Rules and standards of the iconography and the decorative motifs developed on the Iranian Plateau reached many times Islamic Sicily and Spain. According to R. Ghirshman, « … these passed through the same course which leads through Sumer and Babylon and Ninive to Achaemenian and Samanid Persia, and there from reaches the Byzantine Empire, Islam and Roman Europe … ».37 The Muslim conquests, the Crusades, the present of the Latin states in the Levant, the increase of the flow of pilgrimage in the 12th and 13th century, the diplomatic relations with pre-cious gifts (including Near Eastern silk fabrics)38 and all trade exchanges wove

34 The silk is a large single fragment (1, 60 x 1, 20 m). A. Muthesius, Studies in Byzantine and Islamic Silk Weaving, London 1995. For the fabric of Auxerre see M. Marti-niani-Reber, “Les tissus de Saint Germain”, in: Saint-Germain d’Auxerre. Intellectuels et ar-tistes dans l’Europe Carolingienne, IXe-XIe siècles, exhibition catalogue, Abbaye Saint-Ger-main (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire), Auxerre 1990, 173-176; Idem, “Suaire de saint Germain d’Auxerre”, in: Byzance, L’Art byzantin dans les collections publiques françaises, exhibition catalogue, Musée du Louvre, Paris 1992, 377, no 285; B. Girault-Kurtzemann- G. Vial, “La conservation du tissu aux aigles d’Auxerre”, BCIETA 71 (1993), 26-35. A. Muthesius (Byz-antine Silk Weaving AD 400 to AD 1200, Vienna 1997, 47) described it as a “large single frag-ment”. On the contrary, A. Gonosová (The Glory of Byzantium, 225, n.5) suggested that it is “assembled from fourteenth different fragments”. A small fragment of the same silk showing the section of the eagle head is in Florence, in the Bargello. See I. Errera, “Il Dono del Barone Franchetti al Bargello”, Bolletino d’Arte 12 (1907), 28-34.2.

35 A. Muthesius, Byzantine Silk Weaving, 55-56, n. 36. 36 A.U. Peker, The double-headed eagle of the Seljuks. A historical study, Unpublished

Master Thesis, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul 1989; Idem, “The origins of the Seljukid double-headed eagle as a cosmological symbol” in: Art Turc/Turkish Art: Proceedings of the 10th Inter-national Congress of Turkish Art (Genève 17-23, 1995), Genève 1999, 559-566; P. Androudis, “Origines et symbolique de l’aigle bicéphale des Turcs Sedjoukides et Artuqides de l’Asie Mineure (Anatolie)”, Βυζαντιακά 19 (Thessaloniki, 1999), 309-345. See also S. Carboni, “Stone Carving with Double-Headed Eagle», BYZANTIUM. Faith and Power (1261-1557), (Exposition Cata-logue, Metropolitan Museum, New York, 23 March-5 July 2004), N. York 2004, 397 (no 243).

37 R. Ghirshman, Iran. From the earliest times to the Islamic conquest (translated from French), Harmondsworth, 1954.

38 See Kitab al-Dhakha’ir wa al-Tuhaf [The Book of Treasures and Gifts], ed. by M. Hamidullah, Kuwait 1959; M. Hamidullah, “Nouveaux documents sur les rapports de l’Europe avec l’Orient musulman au moyen âge”, Arabica 7.3 (1960), 281-300; R. Cormack, “But Is It Art?” in: Byzantine Diplomacy. Papers from the Twenty-Fourth Spring Symposium

Ni{ i Vizantija XIV 319

a dense network from the North Sea to the Persian Gulf, with many cross-cul-tural interactions. All these mobilities resulted to a “shared culture of precious objects and artifacts”, especially for the courts and princes.39 In this context, we find many luxurious silks with single and double-headed eagles (Alone or together with other emblems of power) in Byzantium, in Andalusia, the Latin West, as well as the Near East.40

From Buyid (or Buwahid, in Persian: Āl-e Būya) Iran of mid tenth-mid eleventh century (932- 1055), where the ruling family claimed a Sasamian descent and identified with pre-Islamic Persia and ancient Persian and Sassanian traditions and where popular myths were rediscovered and remployed in cultu-re, poetry and art41 , up to Andalusian Muslim Spain, the precious masterpieces of silks with heraldic representations of double-headed eagles (fig. 4) present a variety in compositions and symbolical meanings.

In these silks the eagles, the most eminent of predatory birds, are shown frontal, “frozen”, into static stiffness and often grasping their small prey, usu-ally hare-like creatures (or quadrupeds) in their talons. This imagery, although slightly unnatural, can be regarded as an independent subvariant of the heraldi-cally posed birds.

Silk textiles were luxury goods, which often involved polychromy and gold brocade. As a result, they were well known and respected in their time. of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 1990, ed. J. Shepard and S. Franklin, Aldershot 1992, 219-236; A. Cutler, “Les échanges de dons entre Byzance et l’Islam (IXe-XIe siècles)”, Journal des Savants, January- June 1996, 51- 66; G. al-Hijjāwī al-Qaddūmī, Book of Gifts and Rarities, Kitāb al-Hadāyā wa al-Tuh. Af, Cambridge, Mass., 1996; A. Cutler, “The Em-pire of Things: Gift Exchange between Byzantium and the Islamic World”, Center 20. Re-cord of Activities and Research Reports, June 1999-May 2000 (Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, 2000), 67- 70; Idem ; “Gifts and Gift Exchange as Aspects of the Byzantine, Arab, and Related Economies”, DOP 55 (2001), 247- 278; E.R. Hoffman, “Pathways of Portability: Islamic and Christian Interchange from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century”, Art History 24.1 (2001), 17-50. On the complexities of gift exchange, see C.J. Hilsdale, “Gift”, Studies in Iconography 33 (2012), 171-182.

39 A. Grabar, “Le succès des arts orientaux à la cour byzantine sous les Macédoniens”, Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, Dritte Folge, Band II (1951), 32- 60; O. Grabar, “The Shared Culture of Objects,” in Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204, ed. H. Magu-ire (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1997), 115-129; D. Jacoby, “Silk crosses the Mediter-ranean”, in: Le vie del Mediterraneo. Idee, uomini, oggetti (secoli XI-XVI), Genova, 19-20 aprile 1994 (Università degli studi di Genova, Collana dell’Istituto di storia del medioevo e della espansione europea, n. 1), ed. G. Airaldi, Genova, 1997, 55-79; Idem, “Silk Economics and Cross-cultural Artistic Interaction: Byzantium, the Muslim World and the Christian West”, DOP 58 (2004), 197-240; C. Archangeli-Schmidt-G. Wolf (ed.), Islamic artefacts in the Medi-terranean World: Trade, Gift Exchange and Artistic Transfer, Venezia 2010.

40 A. Cutler, Eagle Silks in Byzantium, the Latin West and ‘Abbāsid Baghdad, 67-72. 41 For Buyid Iran and Iraq see M. Kabir, The Buwayhid Dynasty of Baghdad

(334/946‑447/1055), Calcutta, 1964; H. Busse, “Iran under the Bûyids”, in R. N. Frye (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 4, “From the Arab invasion to the Saljuqs”, Cambridge, 1975, 250-304; J.L. Kraemer, Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam- The Cultural Revival during the Buyid Age, Leyden, 1992; J.J. Donohue, The Buwayhid Dynasty in Iraq 334 H./945 to 403 H./1012- Shaping Institutions for the Future, Leiden 2003. On a synthesis on the differ-ent Buyid dynasties see: C. Cahen, “Buwayhides or Būyids”, Encyclopedia of Islam ², t.1, ed. by B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht, assisted by C. Dumont and R. M. Savory, Leiden 1960.

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Finds of 10th- 12th c. Islamic silks in European churches testify to a highly organized trade and to kindly gifts, until European silk-weaving flourished in the 14th c. It is worthnoting that by the end of 12th century arabic terms en-tered the western silk terminology. Silk textiles from Baghdad (the “panni de Bagadello”) reached through Genoa the Spanish cities of Valencia and Ceuta. Evidence on western imports of silks from the Near East is rich in 12th century and even more abundant in 13th century.42.

Unfortunately, there is a length limit on this paper and, going into any detail at all on 11th-12th c. eastern and western silks with double-headed eagles, would exceed it.

The Textiles

A . Textiles from Buyid Iran and Iraq

We will start our presentation of the surviving medieval textiles dis-playing double-headed eagles with the most ancient ones, those from the pre-Seljuk Iran of the dynasty of the Buyids (or Buwahids). In these textiles the fa-bulous bird figure alone or carrying a man in front of their breast. Eagles appear in a highly stylized manner and are accompanied by Kufic inscriptions.43 These silk textiles with eagles, were found together with other silks in tombs of an ancient necropolis in Iran (see below). These textiles were principally garments, shrouds, large cloths with funerary inscriptions. The latter were used as covers for coffins, acording to a local Daylamite Shi’i practice.44 Although we ignore the identity of the people in the tombs, inscriptions on one of them which bore the name of the Buyid ruler Baha‘ al-Daula (989-1012), led scholars to classify some silks as Buyid. The other silks were dated from the the late ‘Αbbasid to late Seljuk period and include Egyptian and Syrian pieces. Although it was be-lieved that these pieces were modern forgeries, it seems that: “ … the invention of a new, complex iconography, epigraphically correct, the emulation of me-dieval fibres, dyes and weaves, for which modern technology could help little, and the simulation of fabric fatigue would demand skills and organization of no mean order …”.45

The first textile that we present here (fig. 5, 6), a silk cloth with three pairs of double-headed eagles with human figures standing in front of them,

42 See D. Jacoby, Silk crosses the Mediterranean, 55-79. 43 On the role of the Kufic inscriptions in Islamic textiles see I. Bierman, “Art and

Politics: The Impact of Fatimid Uses of Tiraz Fabrics”, Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Uni-versity of Chicago, 1980; S. Blair, “Inscriptions on Medieval Islamic Textiles”, in: Isla-mische Textilkunst des Mittelalters: Aktuelle Probleme = Riggisberger Berichte 5 (1997), 95-104; Idem, “A Note on the Prayers Inscribed on Several Medieval Silk Textiles in the Abegg Foundation”, in: Islamische Textilkunst des Mittelalters, op.cit., 128-138.

44 See J. Allgrove McDowell, “Textiles”, in: R.W. Ferrier (ed.), The Arts of Persia, Yale University Press, N. Haven and London, 1989, 157, n. 33.

45 Ibidem, 157.

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is now preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art.46 This cloth.47 almost com-plete in length and breadth (extant section: 1, 70 and 0, 65 m respectively), is believed to have been found in the “commercial” excavation of a tomb tower at Naqqārakāna, Iran, in 1924-1925. This ancient necropolis is adjoining the sanctuary of Shahr Banu near Rayy (a few kilometres south of Teheran).48 This piece, attributed to late 10th or early 11th c. Persia49 was, without any doubt, a precious material destined to envelop the body of an important deceased person of royal origin. The motif of the double-headed eagle goes back to Summerian and Hittite times, whereas the theme of a human figure carried off by an eagle, is familiar in the West through the Ganymedes myth. E. Kühnel interpreted the image as an Iranian variant of the myth of Ganymedes, suggesting that depic-tions with human figures on which the eagles grasp quadrupeds in their talons were based on a misconstruction of the myth.50

The elaborate and ornamental treatment of details in this silk is character-istic of a number of pieces thought to have come from this site.

The inscription at the top of the textile is a verse from a Dīwān dedicated by the poet Buhturi to the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil (847-861), in oder to congratulate him on an escape from drowning. It reads: ‘You remain the Amir of the Faithful and your preservation is for the epoch an event of excellent quality’51.

From the point of iconography it is important to see the presence of a mo-tif in the Sassanid Style on a fabric from late 10th or early 11th c. Buyid Iran. Although known from ancient times and in use during the medieval period,52 the design oft he eagle hith a hman being in this textile seems to represent the theme of the “Ascent to Heaven”. We see a young man, with a royal head of hair as a halo, which is carried off into space by a great fantastic bird (in our case a double-headed eagle) that encloses him. According to some stylized details, this bird could be identified as the anqa (phoenix) or simurgh, which already in

46 No 62.264, Purchase from the J.H.Wade Fund. See G. Wiet, Soieries persanes, 55-63; G. Wiet, Miss Day’s Reply, 244-250 ; F.E. Day, Review of G. Wiet, Soieries persa-nes, 231-244; H. Corbin, Terre céleste et corps de résurrection de l’Iran mazdéen à l’Iran shi’ite, Paris 1960; D.G. Shepherd, Three Textiles from Raiy, 65-70; Idem, Medieval Persian Silks in Fact and Fancy; M. Lemberg, The Buyid Silks of the Abbegg Foundation, 28-43; G. Vial, Technical Studies on the Buyid Silk Fabrics, 70-80; S.S. Blair, J.M. Bloom and A.E. Wardwell, Reevaluating the Date of the “Buyid” Silks, 1-41.

47 The weave is a lampas with warp-faced tabby ground and weft-faced tabby pat-tern. Warp and weft are of silk.

48 Hundreds of smaller silk fragments in the same burial ground were unearthed in the 1930’s, by the Ray Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston but they remain unpublished. An also unpublished report on some of these silks by Florence E. Day is on file in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

49 See above, n. 46. 50 Ε. Kühnel, “Die Kunst Persiens unter der Buyiden”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen

Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 106/1 (N.F. 31), 1956, 85, 89-90. 51 G. Wiet, Soieries persanes, 55-63. 52 See A. Bollók, “The birds from the braid ornaments from Ramakaz: a view from

the Mediterranean”, in: F. Daim- J. Drauschke (ed.), Byzanz- Das Römerreich im Mittelalter. Teil 3. Peripherie und Nachbarschaft, Mainz 2010, 331-368.

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the Avesta (the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism), as in the later Persian mystical epics, assumes so many symbolic functions, even becom-ing the emblem of the Holy Spirit.53 It is important to remember an episode in the Persian heroic epic Shahnama, (around 1020),54 namely, the abduction of Zāl, son of Sam, who was nurtured and reared by the great bird Simurgh.55 The spiritual meaning of this episode, as it was developed by the mystic poet Suhrawardi, is in full accord with the hadith (a saying or an act or tacit approval or disapproval ascribed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad), which could lead us to meditation on the symbolism of the image. In our case the hadith alludes to the green Bird whose breast offers a shelter in the other world to the martyrs, the spirits of the “witnesses of truth”. According to Simnani, one of the Iranian Sufi masters, this is an allusion to the formation of the “resurrection body”. Thus, the represented hieratic movement of being taken up to the Heaven, reveals the meaning of what G. Wiet called its “triumphant gravity”.56

Each upper part of the eagles’s wings is occupied by a small bird, possibly a cock. The eagle has a spread tail and clutches quadrupeds in his claws. On the wing of each small bird (cock?) there is an inscription: “al-rahmah” [= mercy, pity]. On the upper part of the arms of the small standing figure the inscription reads: “al-barakah” [= blessing]. At top of textile, there is Kūfic inscription: “Thou hast remained Commander of the Believers, and indeed, Thy remaining is (a) handsome and good (thing) for the age”.

No doubt that this silk was wrapping the body of a deceased person, of royal origin.

Two other fragments of silk textiles, also from Buyid Iran, represent ex-actly the same theme of the Ascension.

The first fabric (fig. 7, 8), from the Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. no 53434)57 displays double-headed eagles with human figures, but this time wit-hout the presence of animals.58 Another smaller fragment of the same silk cloth, with four double-headed eagles in a row, is kept in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Collection.59 The biggest fragment displays eight brown double-headed eagles in ivory background, separated by “trees of life” in form of a candelabrum, united by horizontal bands with inscriptions. Each fabulous bird is represented frontally, carrying a winged creature. Its wings are almost square and ornamented with arabic inscriptions.

53 On the origin and symbolism of the mythical bird Simurgh or Semourv see mainly: H.-P. Schmidt, “The Sēmurw. Of Birds and Dogs and Bats”, Persica 9 (1980), 1-85; Idem, “Simurg”, in: Encyclopedia Iranica (www.iranicaonline.org/articles/simorg).

54 See Histoire légendaire des rois de Perse d’après le Livre des Rois de Ferdowsi (traduit du persan par F. Brélian-Djahanshahi), Paris 2001.

55 On Zāl see: A.S. Shahbazi- S. Cristoforetti, “Zāl”, in: Encyclopedia Iranica (www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zal).

56 G. Wiet, Soieries Persanes, 55-63. 57 Acquired by the F.H. Wade Fund. 58 D.G. Shepherd, Three Textiles from Raiy, 68, fig. 3. 59 Inv. no 946.Dt.2, in the past in the Collection of A.U. Pope (A.U. Pope, Masterpieces

of Persian Art, 72, pl. 75), offered in the Museum in 1946 by F. Cleveland Morgan.

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Despite the general stylized design, the attention is focused on details, in particular the treatment of the heads with curved beaks, flowered ears and ornamented necks. No doubt that we have here a “transitional” style, where the motifs depend on the past, but their execution is new. For instance, the double-headed eagle carrying a human creature is a common theme in the ancient Art of the Middle-East.60 Moreover, the repeated compartments reflect the connection with the ancient Islamic textiles and the predominant “Sassanid” style, with a large repertory of fantastic motifs of birds and beasts figured in pairs or in medallions.

The Islamic contribution in the form of this fragment is the use of the arabic inscription as decorative element. The presence of the arabic calligraphy proves the fabrication of the textile in the islamic era. In the superior tablets we read: “Those of noble origin will behave properly” and on the wings: “Those who increase their energy will see their value increasing”.61

The double-headed eagles of our silk remind us of the eagles of the Andalusian and Sicilian textiles of the epoch. No doubt that this silk was wrap-ping, as the previous one, also from Iran, the body of a deceased person of royal origin.

The fragment of the second silk (fig. 9), was found at Naqqāraķāna, also in the province of Raiy (Iran). It is a compound cloth in two textures of white, alternating with a stripe with a green and white Kūfic inscription, displays the pattern of a prince carried by a large double-headed eagle.62 Three pieces of the same silk, are conserved in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection (Washington D.C.)63 and another one in Paris.64 The bigger fragment of the textile, once in a Private Collection,65 was published by M.-T. Picard-Schmitter.66

The main pattern figures a double-headed eagle carrying, from a ring about its neck, a crowned personage, no doubt a prince, which is flanked by two winged lions. The great eagle is no doubt an imperial bird, in a heraldic position and in regal dignity. The eagle has a tail spread into a pedestal terminating in half-acanthus schrolls. The prince depends from the eagle’s neck by a circlet, which he grasps with his hands. Below there is a Kufic inscription. In a green stripe on the upper right part of the conserved piece is a white Naskhī inscrip-tion which reads: “And complete prosperity”.67 P. Ackerman suggested that“ … the textile is supreme as an example of weaving …”. She also attributed the silk

60 D.G. Shepherd, Three Textiles from Raiy, 67. 61 Idem, 67. 62 P. Ackerman, Textiles of the Islamic Periods, 2014 and 2024, cat. no 23. 63 In the Collection of Hon. And Mrs. Robert Woods. 64 Musée de Cluny, inv. no 21.872. 65 According to F. Day (Review of G. Wiet, Soieries persanes, 234), it “… was in

1947 in the possession of Rowland S. Read … ”. 66 M.-T. Picard-Schmitter, Scènes d’Apothéose sur des Soieries, 309- 312, fig. 2. 67 P. Ackerman, Textiles of the Islamic Periods, 2014, 2034.

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– without any solid arguments – to the workshops of Kashan (Iran), but neither the design of the fragment, nor the double-woven part, characteristic for this slk, points to this attribution.68 The textile was generally attributed to 10th-11th c.

M.-T. Picard-Schmitter recognized in these three Buyid textiles with dou-ble-headed eagles and human figures the Theme of the Apotheosis.69

We should not omit to point out that exactly the same motif, with all the features justifying reference to the hadith interpreted by Simnani, figures among the paintings adorning the “muslim” wooden ceiling of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, Sicily (1130-1140). Here the eagle is displayed, with a single head and not two. Whether or not the Palermo ceiling painters came from Fatimid Egypt,70 or Syria,71 it is known that they were inspired by themes originating from Iran, and often, as in the present case, did no more than reproduce them. We should assume that representations of this royal emblem in Norman art of Sicily (as in the Norman Stanza in King Roger II’s palace in Palermo) about the second half of the 12th century were inspired by Islamic textiles.72.

As for Byzantium, a parallel to the theme of the Ascension in textiles can be found in the byzantine silk of around 1000, now in the Mainfränkisches Museum, Würzburg73 . It depicts the Celestial Journey of Alexander the Great, accompanied by two single-headed eagles. On the other hand and as we saw above, the eagle silk textile from the Cathedral of Auxerre (France), is the only one attributed to byzantine imperial workshops. Here we have single-headed eagles of rather “heraldic type”, without carrying any prey or human figures in their breast.

68 M.-T. Picard-Schmitter, Scènes d’Apothéose sur des Soieries, 309, n. 16. 69 Ibidem, 306-341. 70 U. Monneret de Villard, Le pitture musulmane al sofito della Cappella Palatina in

Palermo, Roma 1950, fig. 5. The same ceiling depicts other eagles of prey (fig. 15, 16, 22, 26 and 27: single-headed, fig. 19, 20, 28, 29: double-headed, with repaintings. See also E.J. Grübe, “La pittura islamica nella Sicilia normanna del XII secolo”, in : La pittura in Italia. L’altomedioevo, ed. C. Bertelli, Milan 1994, 416-431; L.A. Kapitaikin, The Paintings of the Ceilings of the aisles in the Cappella Palatina, Palermo, Unpublished M. St. Thesis, Oxford University, 2002. On the character of the decoration of Cappella Palatina see S. Ćurčić, “Some Palatine aspects of the Cap-pella Palatina in Palermo”, DOP 41 (1987), 141; W. Tronzo, “The Medieval Object-Enigma, and the Problem of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo”, Word and Image 9/3 (1993), 197-228; Idem, The Cultures of His Kingdom: Roger II and the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, Princeton 1997.

71 See D. Knipp, “Image, Presence, and Ambivalence. The Byzantine Tradition of the painted Ceiling in the Cappelle Palatina, Palermo”, in F.A. Bauer (ed.), Visualisierung von Herrschaft. Frühmittelalterliche Residenzen- Gestalt und Zeremoniell (= Byzas 5, Istan-bul 2005), 283-328.

72 P. Androudis, “Les premières apparitions attestées de l’aigle bicéphale dans l’art roman d’Occident (XIe-XIIe siècles). Origines et symbolique”, Niš and Byzantium. Eleventh Symposium, Niš, 3-5 June 2012, Niš 2013, 215-217. On the mosaics of Salla Normanna see in particular O. Demus, The Mosaics of Norman Sicily, London 1950, 180-183 and fig.113-119.

73 Description of the silk in: J.H. von Hefner-Alteneck, Kunstwerke und Gerätschaften Des Mittelalters und Der Renaissance, Bd. II, Frankfurt am Main 1857, 17, pl. 29; K.G. Stephani, Der älteste deutsche Wohnbau und seine Einrichtung: Bd II, Der Deutsche Wohnbau und seine Einrichtung von Karl den Grosse bis zum Ende des XI. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 1903, 662.

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Textiles with double-headed eagles attributed to Muslim Spain

Muslim Spain developped as a major center of production and manuf-acture of luxurious textiles, especially silks. The manufacture was strongly influenced by the Near East techniques and many of ist fabrics imitated with certainty eastern types.74

Textiles with double-headed eagles attributed to Andalusí workshops were found in tombs, or wrapping the relics of Christian saints. The practice of wrapping the bodily remains of Christian saints in precious textiles, often imported from the eastern Mediterranean, the Near East, Spain, or Sicily, is well attested from at least the eleventh century onward.75 Textiles were found in royal tombs as mortuary vestments. Other scholars rejected the narrow in-terpretation of the exclusive use of these textiles as mortuary vestements and proposed that they were probably chosen “from amongst the wardrobe of the living”.76 Silk textiles were also used as ecclesiastical vestments or as church hangings and furnishings.77

It is worthnoting that precious silks with double-headed eagles, which were believed to be Byzantine (fig. 4), should be finally attributed to the famous textile workshops of Muslim Spain. These andalusí workshops were placed un-der the direction and the control of the prince who claimed the paternity of the production. As a result, these textiles became the mark of prince’s prestige. The frequent presence on these objects of the name of the sultan, or the governor owner of the workshops, underline this idea of appartenance or valorization of

74 R.B. Serjeant, Material for a History of Islamic Textiles, 29-40; F. May, Silk Textiles from Spain; M. Campos, Figurative Hispano-Arabic Textiles; M. Campos Kent, Figurative Hispano-Arabic Textiles; C. Partearroyo Lacaba, “Tejidos, alfombras y tapices”, in: Historia de las Artes Aplicadas e Industriales en España, Madrid 1982, 349-388; L. Serrano-Piedecasas Fernnádes, “Elementos para una historia de la manufactura textile andalusí (siglos IX-XII)”, Studia Historica. Historia Medieval, IV-2 (1986), 205-229; K. Otavsky-M. A.M. Salim, Mittel-alterliche Textilien. Vol. I, Ägypten ; Persien und Mesopotamien; Spanien und Nordafrika. Die Textilsammlung der Abegg-Stiftung, I, Riggisberg 1995; C. Partearroyo Lacaba, Almoravid and Almohad Textiles; V. Fernandez, Algunas reflexiones sobre el studio arqueológico de los tejídos; S. Kinoshita, “Almería Silk and the French Feudal Imaginary: Towards a ‘Material’ History of the Medieval Mediterranean,” in Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles, Cloth-work, and Other Cultural Imaginings, ed. E. J. Burns (N. York 2004), 165-176; C. Partearroyo Lacaba, “Los tejidos de al-Andalus: los talleres de la Almería Almorávide” in: La Alcazaba. Fragmentos para una historia de Almería, Junta de Andalucía, 2005, 221-234; Idem, “Estudio histórico-artístico de los tejidos de al-Andalus y afines”, Bienes Culturales 5 (2005), 37-74; A. Cabrera Lafuente, “Los tejidos como patrimonio: Investigación y exposición”, Bienes Cultu-rales 5 (2005), 5-19; L. Rodríguez Peinado, “La producción textile en al-Andalus: origen y desarollo”, Anales de Historia del Arte 22 (2012), Núm. Especial (II), 265-279.

75 See A. Muthesius, Byzantine Silk Weaving, 119-120. 76 A. Sokoly,”Between Life and Death: The Funerary Context of Tiraz Textiles”,

in: Islamische Textilkunst, 71-78. On the use of Muslim textiles for the Christian Kings of Castile see M.J. Feliciano, “Muslim shrouds for Christian kings? A reassessment of Andalusí textiles in Thirteenth-Century Castilian life and ritual”, Under the Influence. Questioning the Comparative in Medieval Castile (The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World, vol. 22), éd. C. Robinson et L. Rouhi, Leiden-Boston 2005, 101-131, fig. 1-6.

77 A. Muthesius, Byzantine Silk Weaving, 120-126.

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the ruler. Other workshops, which were private and of considerable size, were working (but not exclusively) for the governor, but they were situated outside the palace. The textiles of high quality were in majority destined for the com-merce and for export. They were also private workshops of minor importance, individuals or organized in small corporations.

Most of Andalusí textiles are now preserved in Western Europe, in Christian contexts (ecclesiastical collections, treasuries and museums), as ec-clesiastical vestments, in royal burials and as reliquary linings. They display double-headed eagles clutching lions or gazelles as prey in their claws. In the beaks of the eagles figure crescent-shaped objects with pendants (there is no satisfacitory explanation for their meaning) and on their bodies are plant forms, which could be stylized trees of life (axis mundi),78 within pearled lozenges. No doubt that the union of the sacred symbols of the eagle and the lion would have had ambiguous but clearly powerful significance. Both symbols were associ-ated with spiritual and earthly power. The the placement of the two images in a heraldic context would have denoted importance generally.

It is more than obvious that the type of symbolism of the Buyid Persian textiles with the abduction of Zāl (or the ascension of the soul, or the glorifica-tion of the body, or the Apotheosis as it was interpreted) is not found at all in the Islamic textiles of andalusian fabric. It seems that for a short time in the 12th century the emblem of the two-headed eagle was used in Spain, after the capital Toledo was incorporated in the Kingdom of Castile in 1085. It is worth-noting that cloth pieces with two-headed eagles can be found also in the time of Alphonso VII of Castile (1126-1157), who unified the Spanish Kingdoms and was crowned “Emperor of All Spains” in 1135.79 These clothes are probably of Islamic origin and fabric and we can not exclude that they may have belonged to Almohad commandents (1060-1147) from which Toledo was captured.

For the Muslim artists of Spain, the iconography of the double-headed eagle as bird of prey has heraldic origins. According to D.G. Shepherd, the mo-tif of the double-headed eagle with its prey: « … can be traced in an unbroken line in Persian art back through Sassanian, Parthian and Achaemenean art to prehistoric times, where this motive is found in a painted pottery from Susa III ... ».80 King of birds and solar symbol, the eagle with its prey represents the victory of the eternal over the temporary. Thus the eagle represented also the divine aspect of the King who used these symbols81 and consequently it became an evident symbol of superiority with divine connotations.

78 For the theme and symbolism of “Tree of Life” or “axis mundi”, see: M. Cheb-el, Dictionnaire des symboles musulmans. Rites, mystique et civilization, Paris 1995, 62-63. Also J. Chevalier-A. Gheerbrant, Dictionnaire des symboles. Mythes, rêves, coutumes, gestes, formes, figures, couleurs, nombres, 16th reimpression, Paris 1994, 62-72.

79 Called on his seals + ADE FONSUS IMPERATOR HISPANIAE. For his reign see: B.F. Reilly, The Kingdom of Leon-Castille Under King AlphonsoVII- 1126-1157, University of Pennsylvania, 1998.

80 D.G. Shepherd, The Hispano-Islamic textiles in the Cooper Union Collection, 363. 81 E.R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 8, N. York

1958, 128-129.

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One of the most important fragments of Andalusian eagle silks of elev-enth-twelfth centuries is the one from the tomb of San (Saint) Bernardo Calbó (1233- †1243), in the Cathedral of Vich, Cataluña, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N. York, with heraldic double-headed eagles, with half-ex-tended wings, clutching lions as prey (fig. 4).82 The presence of fragments of the same textile in other museums and collections,83 suggests that the original textile was very large. This “Cloth of the Eagles”, which belongs to the type of “pallia cum aquilis et bestiolis”, is a silk textile decorated with double-headed eagles. The colour of the ground resembles carmine, and on it the design is wrought in greenish black - probably green in original - relieved with yellow at intervals. Certain scholars in the past suggested that this textile was byzan-tine, while others attributed it to a hispano-moorish workshop and recognized byzantine influences84 . In any case, the ordnance of the motifs in rows and not any more within the perle-bordered roundels, indicates a new treatment of the ancient models, which places the production of this textile in the reign of Almoravids.85 The fragments of this textile are believed to be a part of the booty from the Christian reconquest campaigns against the Muslims of Spain that Bernardo Calbó led as bishop of Vich when he was accompanying the Spanish King Don Jayme the Conqueror in the conquest of Valencia (1238). The ico-nography of this textile consists of the motif of the double-headed eagle clutch-ing liobs as prey in its claws, within roundels in rows. The becs of the eagles have crescent-shaped objects with pendants. The bodies of the eagles have plant forms, like stylized Trees of Life, inscribed in lozenges made of pearls. In fact the iconography of the eagle clutching smaller animals represents the triuph of the spiritual over the temporal. According to D.G. Shepherd, the representation of eagles clutching lions in their claws is an indigenous variant of an old myth.86 It seems that the artist used the two solar symbols of the eagle and the lions to illustrate the spiritual nature of the struggle, with the king of birds vanquishing the king of Beasts87 . On the other hand A. Gonosová, suggested that this “ …

82 Weft-faced compound twill, Warp: undyed silk. Weft: red, dark green and yellow silk. Dimensions: 63 x 46 cm, no 41.92 (Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1941).

83 In: Vich, Cataluña, Museu Arqueològic-Artístic Episcopal (F. May, Silk Textiles of Spain, 46, fig. 31); Cleveland Museum of Art (D.G. Shepherd, The Third Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvó, 13, 14); N. York (Cooper-Hewitt Museum, see Early Christian and Byzantine Art: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Exhibition Catalogue, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore 1947, 153, no 774, pl. 114); Riggisberg, Abegg-Stiftung, see K. Otavsky-M. A.M. Salim, Mittelalterliche Textilien, 163-166, no 90.

84 D.G. Shepherd, The Third Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvó, 13-14; F. May, Silk Textiles of Spain, 49; J. Beckwith, “Byzantine Tissues”, in: Actes du XIVe Con-grès International des Études Byzantines (Bucarest, 6-12 septembre 1971), vol. I, Bucarest 1974, 351-352; M. Campos Kent, Figurative Hispano-Arabic Textiles, 115-123; A. La Barre Starencier, An Art Historical Study of the Byzantine Silk Industry, Ph.D. diss., Columbia University 1982; A. Gonosová, “Textile fragment with double-headed eagles”, in: The Glory of Byzantium, 413-414, fig. 270.

85 D.G. Shepherd, The Third Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvó, 14; M. Campos Kent, Figurative Hispano-Arabic Textiles, 115-123.

86 D.G. Shepherd, The Third Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvó, 14. 87 M. Campos Kent, Figurative Hispano-Arabic Textiles, 116.

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double-headed eagle silk is best understood as an eleventh-or- twelfth- century Hispano-Islamic adaptation of a Byzantine textile, which could have reached Spain in the late tenth or early eleventh century …”.88

Other Andalusian silks contain heraldic eagles with spread tails which are bordered by a row of small rosettes. A fragment of these 12th century silks with double-headed eagle, from the Cleveland Museum of Arts, comes from the reliquary of the early Christian martyr Santa Librada at the Spanish Cathedral of Sigüenza (fig. 10)89 . According to the written sources, this silk was im-ported from Almería by the Spanish king Alphonso VII.90 In this fragment, a medallion contains a heraldic eagle with spread tail bordered by a row of eight small rosettes. The eagle wings are divided by a horizontal band bearing a short pseudo-Latin inscription. Each eagle’s shoulder is occupied by a small medal-lion which contains a single quadruped, similar to those in the frame of the large medallions. The eagle’s body is decorated with a pattern of hearts. The fabulous bird wears a necklace of pearls; a similar band of pearls appears at the juncture of body and tail. In his outstretched claws the fabulous bird holds two tablets on the right one of which is written usually the Arabic word Baraka (“blessing”), which appears in mirror image on the left91 . We should point out here that the eagle has two and not one heads (the left one is partly destroyed). Another fragment of the same textile is conserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fig. 11).92 According to M. Campos Kent: “… The iconographic configuration of this textile would have had the clear spiritual significance of transcendence …”.93 It is obvious here that the power of the eagle and its spiritual value are a vehicle of afterlife. The eagle itself is the guide to paradise and its reinforced by the presence of gazelles, symbols of transcendence.94

A fragment of an almost identical fragment of textile is found in Museu Arqueològic-Artístic Episcopal, Vich (fig. 12).95 The principal iconography consists of one double-headed eagle in heraldic pose, placed within interlaced medallions and richly decorated by polychrome bands. In this textile the arms of the eagle and its body are not decorated. The fabulous bird carries two tablets with Kufic inscriptions. The two textiles have certain stylistic elements in com-mon: the design is an allover pattern and hardly any space is left undecorated. Moreover, a strange contradiction between the static, heraldic quality of the main pattern and the rather “grotesque” activity of the small prancing animals is particularly noteworthy.

88 A. Gonosová, Textile fragment with double-headed eagles, 414. 89 No 52.15, Lampas weave, silk and gold thread (dimensions: 36, 50 x 39, 55 cm),

purchase from the J.H. Wade Fund 1952.15. See F. May, Silk Textiles of Spain, 39, 40 (pl. 25); M. Campos Kent, Figurative Hispano-Arabic Textiles, 110-114; A. Muthesius, Byzantine Silk Weaving. AD 400 to AD 1200, Vienna 1997, 88 and 233.

90 See The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook, Cleveland 1958, no 120. 91 D.G. Shepherd, The Third Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvó, 9; E. J.

Grube, Two Hispano-Islamic Silks, 78, 79. 92 Accession no 58.85, Height: 36, 50, width: 39, 55 cm. 93 M. Campos Kent, Figurative Hispano-Arabic Textiles, 111. 94 Ibidem, 111. 95 F. May, Silk Textiles of Spain, 46, fig. 31; E. J. Grube, Two Hispano-Islamic Silks, 78, 79.

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Double-headed eagles appear also in a silk from the shrine of St. Anno (†1075), whose relics were transferred at the 12th century shrine at St. Servatius, Siegburg (fig. 13).96 The Islamic inscription on the silk is translated: “Praise to the birth of Allah”. P. Schmölz suggested a Spanish provenance for the textile, while S.M. Plötzek, proposed a Sicilian origin.97

A silk today lost, from a reliquary now at the Kunstgewerbermuseum, Berlin was ornamented with double-headed eagles. It was previously kept in Quedlinburg Cathedral, Berlin (fig. 14).98

Another magnificent Andalusian silk of 12th century, now preserved in the Historical Textile Museum of Lyon, France (fig. 1) originates from a mantle covering a statue of Notre-Dame de la Victoire, in the Church of Thuir (the Department of Pyrénées orientales, France).99 It represents a double-headed eagle clasping captive gazelles in his talons. The breast has distinctive ogee foliate motifs occurring between rows of the design. Up until the sixteenth cen-tury there was a custom, which consisted of removing small pieces from the textile to give to women who were about to give birth. The remaining fragments show that the eagles were placed in horizontal rows and separated from each other by a vertical band of trees of life. Despite the absence of an inscription, there is every reason to believe that this silk piece was produced in the Palatine workshops of Muslim Spain around 12th century. In the Reyes de Taifas era, the same powerful stylization of the figures can be seen and the textiles all have the same colors: examples are the material on the altar of Vich (in Catalonia) and the silk interior of the reliquary of St. Emilianus in the monastery of Yuso (Logroño), also in Spain. However, the arrangement of motifs in rows, and not within beaded borders, indicates a break with old traditions, and suggests this textile was produced during the period of the reign of the Almoravid dynasty (1056-1147). A. Muthesius identified the two headed bird as a peacock.100

In recent times, new textiles ornamented with double-headed eagles were discovered. No doubt that the most brilliant is the “big blue textile”, which was found in the tomb of St. Zoilo in Cataluña (fig. 15).101 This extraordinary silk

96 For the Siegburg piece see P. Schmölz, Der Siegburger Servatius Schatz, Köln 1952, 28; S.M. Plötzek, “Textilfragmente aus Siegburger Schreinen” in: Monumenta Anno-nis. Köln und Siegburg, Weltbild und Kunst im hohen Mittelalter, Schnütgen Museum, Köln 30 April -27 July 1975, Köln 1975, 180-181 and fig. 22d.

97 P. Schmölz, Der Siegburger Servatius Schatz, 28; S.M. Plötzek, Textilfragmente aus Siegburger Schreinen, 180-181 and fig. 22d.

98 O. von Falke, Kunstgeschichte, vol. 1, 116, Abb 185; F. May, Silk Textiles of Spain, 39-40, fig. 26; A. Muthesius, Byzantine Silk Weaving, 88-89, 231 and fig. 90B.

99 Inv. no 28003. Dimensions: 29 x 19 cm. See J.-M. Tuchscherer-G. Vial, Le Musée historique des tissus de Lyon, Lyon 1977, no 13; L’étrange et le Merveilleux en terres d’Is-lam (Catalogue d’Exposition, Paris 2001); Musée des Tissus de Lyon. Guide des Collections, Lyon 2001, 69. Other fragments of the same textile came from an ancient chasuble (which served to envelop the statue of the Virgin of Thuir, in Languedoc-Rousillon). See P. An-droudis, Les premières apparitions attestées, 212-213.

100 A. Muthesius, “Rider and Peacock Silks from the Relics of St. Cuthbert”, in Idem, Studies in Byzantine and Islamic Silk Weaving, London 1995, 89-91.

101 See J.L.S. Gabriel y Galán, “Dos telas islámicas encontradas en el monasterio de San Zoilo de Carrión de los Condes”, Goya no 303 (2004), 332-340; M. Ali de Unzaga,

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of blue color figures thirty-six heraldic white double-headed eagles alone, wit-hout clutching any prey. However, the position of the claws of each «hybrid»102 double-headed eagle reminds us the great eagles of the 11th century Buyid tex-tiles carrying human figures in front of their breast.

The silk found in the tomb of Alfonso VII, King of Castile (1126-1157) in the Cathedral of Toledo (Espagne) represents another double-headed eagle.103

The Tunica (tunic) of Infante Don Garcia (†1145/46), son of the Spanish king Alfonso VII, was found in 1968 in his tomb in the Panteón Real of the Parochial Church of Oña in Burgos, Spain (fig. 16, 17).104 This cloth, which was worn for riding, is decorated with double-headed eagles clutching peacocks as prey in their claws.

Apart from these silks, they are other specimens with double-headed eagles with no inscriptions, but generally attributed either to “The East” or to Muslim Spain. A fragment of a silk textile (transformed into a seal pouch) with double-headed eagle, nearly similar to the one from the 12th c. silk fragments from Vich (fig. 12), is conserved in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Canterbury (inv. no N15, fig. 18).105 A. Muthesius ascribed the fragment to Muslim Spain, but she dated it – in our opinion errouneously - to the 13th century.106

A fragment of a silk with double-headed eagles was recorded as early as 1931, but is still little-known (fig. 19).107 Woven in green on a crimson ground, it bears the pattern of double-headed eagle holding rings in its beaks, set in a frame of interlaced circles from which the interlaced portions have been de-leted. A fragment of the same textile is now at Dumbarton Oaks Collection (fig. 20).108

In Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin is preserved a fragment of a green silk textile with double-headed eagle (fig. 23).109 Once it belonged to the same silk that was found in the Church of Saint-Front in Perigord (France, fig. 22). The figures are golden and each eagle is clutching two lions in its claws. A bigger fragment of the textile is preserved in Lyon, Musée des Tissus Historiques.110

“Estudio Iconográfico y Epigráfico”, in: Las Telas Medievales de San Zoilo, ed. M. Ali de Unzaga and M. Buron, Valladolid 2014 (to be published).

102 This term was used by Mrs M. Ali de Unzaga. 103 M. Gomez-Moreno, Ars Hispaniae: Historia universal des arts Hispánico, Ma-

drid 1951, 350-351, fig. 408b. 104 See Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain Dodds, Jerrilynn, ed., New York, 1992,

107-108.105 See A. Muthesius, “The Exotic Near-Eastern Silks at Canterbury Cathedral”, in:

Idem, Studies in Byzantine, Islamic and Near Eastern Silk Weaving, London 2008, 102, 397 and 398, pl. 90 and 91.

106 Ibidem, 102. 107 See L. Ashton, “IV- Textiles- Some early pieces”, in The Burlington Magazine for

Connoisseurs, vol. 58, No. 334 (Jan. 1931), 22 and 27, pl. IV. C. 108 Inv. no BZ1933.46.109 Inv. no. 99, 103 (dimensions: 22 x 33 cm). See O. von Falke, Kunstgeschichte der

Seidenweberei, fig. 141; M.-T. Picard-Schmitter, Scènes d’Apothéose sur des Soieries, 314 (fig. 4), 315.

110 Inv. no 25080 (acquired 1n 1889), dimensions: around 30 x 50 cm. See: R. Cox,

Ni{ i Vizantija XIV 331

The piece, identical to one more textile found in France (fig. 21), was dated to the second half of the 12th c. and was attributed to a workshop of Muslim Spain or Sicily.

A fragment of a brocaded silk sith a double-headed eagle (fig. 24, now in the Cleveland Museul of Art)111 was found in 1606 in the altar of the Benedictine abbey church of St. Peter in Salzburg. This silk and gold reddish textile was among other precious textiles discovered in the tomb of St. Amandus in the same church. The tomb was rebuilt in the time of Abbot Balderich (1125-1147), so we must assume that the silk wrapped the relics of St. Amandus at that time.112 The fragment, dated to the 11th-12th c., presents a double-headed eagle (its heads are missing), which attacks two panthers with dragon-head tails enclosed within two half-circles that terminate in dragon-heads. The style and iconography of the textile could point toward an origin to the Islamic East. A second fragment of the same silk, this time with a complete double-headed eagle (fig. 25, 26), is reconstructed and kept in Riggisberg, Abegg-Stiftung, Berne.113

There are also 12th c. vestments or textiles which were attributed to Norman Sicily. A figure of double-headed eagle, among other animal and bird motifs is decorating the Chasuble of St. Bernulphus, now in the Utrecht Museum Catharijneconvent (fig. 27). This ecclesiastical vestment is considered of Sicilian fabric.114 A double-headed eagle clutching quadrupeds (probably li-ons) in its claws is painted in the wooden ceiling of Cappela Palatina in Palermo (fig. 29, 12th c.).115 No doubt that this synthesis copied the decoration of a con-temporary textile.

Les soieries d’art depuis les origines jusqu’à nos jours, Paris 1914, pl. XXV, no 11; Arts de l’Islam. Des origines à 1700 dans les collections publiques françaises, Exposition Catalogue (Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries), Paris 1971, 170-171 (no 239).

111 The fragment (compound twill, brocaded, dimensions: 46. 4 x 54. 6 cm) was in the hands of Mrs Paul Mallon (Paris).

112 D.G. Shepherd, “A medieval brocade”, Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Arts 37 (1950), 195-196, 199.

113 CH-3132. Dimensions: 46, 3 x 54, 5 cm. See P. Ackermann, “A Gold-woven Byz-antine Silk of the Tenth Century”, Revue des Arts Asiatiques X (1936), 87-88; S. Müller-Chris-tensen, “Zwei Seidengewebe als Zeugnisse der Wechselwirkung von Byzanz und Islam”, Artes Minores. Dank an Werner Abegg., Bern, 1973, 22-25; H. Tietze, Die Denkmaler des Benedik-tinerstiftes St. Peter in Salzburg (= Österreichische Kunstopographie 12), Wien 1913, 96.

114 Inv.no OKM t00091. See G. van Heukelum, De albe, stool en manipel van St. Ber-nulphus, in: Het Gildeboek, II (1877), 1-12; O. von Falke, Seidenweberei, I; H.L.M. Defoer, “De zogenaamde albe van Bernulphus, een onderdeel van een Keizerlink ornaat”, in: J.-C. Klamt and K. Veelenturf (ed.), Representatie, Kunsthistorische bijdragen over vorst, staats-macht en beeldende kunst, opgedragen aan Robert W. Scheller. Nijmegen 2004, 111-124.

115 U. Monneret de Villard, Le pitture musulmane, fig. 5. See also P. Androudis, Les premières apparitions attestées, 214 (fig. 7), 216.

332 Pascal Androudis

Double-headed eagles are also found in frescoes imitating textiles painted in 12th century Romanesque churches of France.116 An exemple is to be found in the Church of Saint-Hilaire d’Asnières-sur-Vègre (fig. 28).117

In the same period the motif of the double-headed eagle is to be found in other creations of Western Art. Thus we find it in the Initial Q to Psalm 51, f. 23r Auct Bible. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Auct. E The eagle is represented with spread tail and, holding leaves by its beaks (fig. 30).118

Later on, double-headed eagles appear in textiles attributed to Seljuk Anatolia (13th century),119 as well as in Mamluk Egypt and Mongol rulers.120

Conclusion

A comparison of the different changes which the motif of double-headed eagle underwent while traveling along the Mediterranean shores before being painted or sculpted in Romanesque churches of XII-XIII centuries in France121 is very important. All the above-mentionned syntheses with double-headed eagles in medieval textiles of “islamic” fabric have special symbolic meanings, which differ totally from Buyid Iran to Muslim Spain and show the enormous success of the motif in medieval art.

As a powerful and assertive bird with solar implications, the eagle was an obvious symbol of superiority with divine connotations. Buyid textiles with double-headed textiles seem to represent Scenes of Apotheosis or a variant of the ancient myth of Ganymedes. Despite the fact that they were found in royal tombs, it is not known whether they were woven expressly as funenary trap-pings, or they were selected from the belongings oft he deceased.

116 P. Deschamps, “L’imitation des tissus dans les peintures murales du Moyen Âge”, in: Comptes-rendus des séances de l’année-Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 98e année, N. 3 (1954), 320-326. On the presence qnd use of textiles in Romanesque churches see: M. Mar-tiniani-Reber, “Teintures et textiles des Églises Romaines au Haut Moyen Âge d’après le Liber Pontificalis”, in: Mélanges de l’Ecole Française de Rome. Moyen Âge 111 (1999-1), 289-315.

117 P. Androudis, Les premières apparitions attestées, 220 (fig. 16) and 222. The main phase of the church was built in 11th century.

118 H.R. Stirrup, Colour, Paint and Gold: The Materiality of English Manuscript Illumi-nation in the Twelfth Century, PhD Thesis, University of York, 2012, v. I, 273-281, v. II, fig. 329.

119 Like the silk cloth from the shrine of Saint Apollinarius, in the church of Saint Gervatius in Siegburg, now preserved in Staatlichen Museen, Berlin (no.81.475). It is worth-noting that the double-headed eagle has heraldic significance for the Seljuks of Rum and appears on their buildings at Konya and elsewhere. See P. Androudis, “Origines et symbo-lique de l’aigle bicéphale des Turcs Seldjoukides et Artuqides de l’Asie Mineure (Anatolie)”, Βυζαντιακά 19 (1999), 311-345.

120 See for instance the stunning brown and ivory striped silk with double-headed eagles from Egypt which bears the elegant naskh inscription “Glory to our master the sul-tan al-Malik al-Mu’ayyad”. This piece is attributed to the Rasulid sultan Mu’ayyad Dāvūd (1297- 1321). See L. W. Mackie, “Toward an Understanding of Mamluk Silks: National and International Considerations”, Muqarnas 2 (1984), 131 (pl. 6) and 138-139.

121 For instance in Vouvant, Civray, Gensac-la-Pallue, Sainte-Colombe, Moissac, Vienne. See P. Androudis, Les premières apparitions attestées, 217-224.

Ni{ i Vizantija XIV 333

As for Spain, the Christians who placed the muslim textiles with double-headed eagles in heraldic postures, accompanied by gazelles, harpies, lions and plants in form of Tree of Life, the multifaceted Islamic program of Salvation of the Soul would have many common elements with the Christian traditions of representation. It is important to remind that Saint John is represented by the eagle transporting the soul to Heaven. Gazelles were symbols of the soul for Christians122 and the harpies were identified with matters of the afterlife.123 Moreover, this iconography was not “hostile”, but “comprehensible” and “ad-mitted” for both religions. Whether these precious silks came north originally by purchase, as diplomatic gift, as tribute, or as loot is often difficult to deter-mine.

Пасхалис Андрудис ДвоглАви орлови нА рАносреДњовековном текстилу (11-12. в.):

АсПекти иконогрАфије и симболике

у раду је пажња усмерена на испитивање одређених аспеката иконографије и симболизма двоглавих орлова изведених на свили у периоду од 11. до 12. века. бројни специјалисти за персијске и исламске материјале произведене у Шпанији, углавном су усмерили пажњу на различите карактеристике, историјску контекстуализацију, радионице и могућа места производње текстила. Поменути материјали, тканине од којих је обично произведен део одеће, углавном су очувани захваљујући чињеници да су били похрањени у манастирским ризницама. у византији, изузев неколико ретких примера, материјали са представом двоглавих орлова појављују се тек у време династије Палеолога, крајем 13. века.

са друге стране, двоглави орлови се у исламској уметности појављују у различитим периодима. исламска култура која прожима исток и Запад, била је под великим утицајем данашњег ирана. Персија је располагала великим бројем мотива још од раздобља класичне антике (такав је и амблем двоглавог орла), а мотив је потом почео да се користи широм медитерана.

све то је допринело популарности овог мотива међу дворјанима у византији, али и у Андалузији, Западу, блиском истоку. иконографија је била погодна како за исламски тако и за хришћански контекст. у ирану средином 10. века, за време династије бујида (932- 1055), овај мотив је ко+ришћен у различитим контекстима. у ирану су двоглави орлови у комбинацији са антропоморфним мотивима. истраживачи су препознали једну варијанту античког мита о ганимеду или сцену Апотеозе или чувени еп Шахнама са митском птицом симург.

будући да је свила подразумевала одабране поручиоце, луксуз и својеврсну полихромију тј. употребу уз брокат и злато, може се рећи да готово сви примери настали у периоду од 11. до 12. века припадају групи текстила који су даривани приликом дипломатских посета владара. тек касније почетком 14. века поново ће се појавити мотиви на свили у другом контексту.

122 J. Chevalier-A. Gheerbrant, Dictionnaire des symboles, 473-474. 123 See S. Braun, “La sirène. Une tentatrice devenue courtisane”, in Idem, Le symbo-

lisme du bestiaire médiéval sculpté (Dossier de l’Art, no 103), Paris 2003, 113-117.

334 Pascal Androudis

Fig. 1 Musée historique des tissus de Lyon. Fragment of Andalusian silk with double-head-ed eagle, 12th centuryсл. 1 историјски музеј текстила у лиону, фрагмент андалузијске свиле са двоглавим орлом, 12.век

Fig. 2 Archaeological Museum of Teheran (Iran). Dish from Sassanian Iran with double-

headed eagle (Photograph by A. Davey) сл. 2 Археолошки музеј у техерану (иран).

Посуда из периода сасанидског ирана са представом двоглавог орла (фото: А. Дејви)

Fig. 3 Detail of a fresco with double-headed eagle. Qyzil, Chinese Turkestan

(7th-9th century A.D)сл. 3 Детаљ фреске са представом

двоглавог орла. кизил, кинески туркистан (7-9 век н.е.)

Ni{ i Vizantija XIV 335

Fig. 4 Silk textile with double-headed eagle from the tomb of San Bernardo de Calbó

(†1243), Cathedral of Vich, Cataluñaсл. 4 свила са мотивом двоглавог орла из гробнице у сан бернардо де калбо Calbó

(†1243), вих катедрала, каталонија

Fig. 5 Silk textile with three pairs of double-headed eagles carrying human

figures (Cleveland Museum of Art, no.62.264)

сл. 5 свила са три пара двоглавих орлова који носе људске фигуре (музеј уметности у кливленду,

бр.62.264)

Fig. 6 Detail of fig. 5 (P. Androudis)сл. 6 Детаљ слике 5 (цртеж: П. Андрудис)

336 Pascal Androudis

Fig. 7 Silk cloth with double-headed eagles (Cleveland Museul of Art, no 53434)

сл. 7 свилена тканина са двоглавим орловима (музеј уметности у кливленду,

бр. 53434) Fig. 8 Detail of fig. 7 (P. Androudis)

сл. 8 Детаљ слике 7 (цртеж: П. Андрудис)

Fig. 9 Fragment of textile. “Ascension” with double-headed eagle and prince. (Dumbarton

Oaks Collection, acc. no 30.1)сл. 9 фрагмент текстила “вазнесење” са

двоглавим орловима и принцем (колекција Дамбартон оакс, бр. 30.1)

Fig. 10 Fragment of Andalusian textile with double-headed eagle from the reliquary of Santa Librada at the

Cathedral of Sigüenza, Cleveland Museum of Artсл. 10 фрагмент андалузијског текстила са мотивом

двоглавог орла из реликвијара санта либрада у катедрали сигуенза, музеј уметности у кливленду

Ni{ i Vizantija XIV 337

Fig. 11 Fragment of the same Andalusian textile with double-headed eagle. Metropolitan

Museum of Art сл. 11 фрагмент истог андалузијског

текстила са двоглавим орлом. метрополитен музеј уметности (њу јорк)

Fig. 12: Fragment of a similar textile with double-headed eagles. Museu Episcopal,

Vichсл. 12: фрагмент сличног текстила са двоглавим орловима, епископски

музеј, вих

Fig. 13 A silk textile with double-headed eagles from the shrine of St. Anno, now in Siegburg

сл. 13 свилени материјал са двоглавим орловима из светилишта св. Ано у сиегбургу

Fig. 14 Now lost silk fragment with double-

headed eagle, formerly kept

in Quedlinburg Cathedral, Berlin

(O. von Falke) сл. 14 Данас

изгубљен фрагмент свиле

са двоглавим орлом, некада

похрањена у катедрали у

берлину (O. вoн фалке)

338 Pascal Androudis

Fig. 15 The “big blue textile” with double-headed eagles found in the tomb of St. Zoilo in Cataluña

сл. 15 велики плави текстил са двоглавим орловима у гробници ст. Зоила у каталонији

Fig. 16 Tunica (tunic) with double-headed eagles of Infante Don Garcia (†1145/46), son of the Spanish emperor Alfonso

VII, found in his tomb in the Parochial Church of Oña in Burgos (Spain)

сл. 16 туникаа са двоглавим орловима инфанте Дон гарсие (†1145/46), сина шпанског цара Алфонса VII,

пронађено у његовој гробници у парохијалној цркви она у бургосу (Шпанија)

Fig. 17 Detail of the tunica of Infante Don Garcia with

double-headed eaglesсл. 17 Детаљ тунике

инфанте Дон гарсие са двоглавим орловима

Fig. 18 Fragment of a silk textile (in

form of a pouch) with double-headed

eagle (Canterbury Cathedral Treasure).

Fig. 18 фрагмент свиле са

двоглавим орлом (кентербери

катедрала, ризница).

Ni{ i Vizantija XIV 339

Fig. 19 Fragment of a silk textile with double-headed

eagle (Indjoudjian)сл. 19 фрагмент свиле

са двоглавим орлом (инђуђијан колекција)

Fig. 20 A fragment of the same textile. Dumbarton Oaks Collection.

сл. 20 фрагмент истог текстила. колекција Дамбартон оакс.

Fig. 21 Textile with double-headed eagles from the

grand-suaire of Saint-Front Perigord

сл. 21 текстил са двоглавим орловима из

покрова св. Перигоа

Fig. 22 Spain, 12th cent. Silk with double-headed eagles. Lyon, Musée des Tissus

сл. 22 Шпанија, 12в.век. свила са двоглавим орловима, лион, музеј текстила

Fig. 23 The same textile. Reconstruction (O. von Falke)

сл. 23 исти текстил, реконструкција (O. вон фалке)

340 Pascal Androudis

Fig. 24 Fragment of textile with double-hea-ded eagle found in the tomb of St. Amandus

(Cleveland Museum of Art)сл. 24. фрагмент текстила са двоглавим

орлом пронађеним у гробници св. Амандија (музеј уметности у кливленду)

Fig. 25 Fragment of the same textile (Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg)

сл. 25. фрагмент истог текстила (Абег стифтунг, ригисберг)

Fig. 26 Detail of fig. 25: Double-Headed eagleсл. 26. Детаљ сл 25: мотив двоглавог орла

Fig. 27 Utrecht Museum Catharijneconvent. Double-Headed

eagle (12th c.) from the decoration of the chasuble of St. Bernulphus

сл. 27. утрехтски музеј, опатија катаријн, двоглави орао (12.век) из декорације одежде св. бернулфија

Ni{ i Vizantija XIV 341

Fig. 28 Church of Saint-Hilaire d’Asnières-sur-Vègre (France). Detail

of a mural painting of 12th century with double-headed eagle.

сл. 28. Црква св. иларија (Saint-Hilaire d’Asnières-sur-Vègre),

француска. Детаљ зидног сликарства 12.в са мотивом двоглавог орла

Fig. 29 Wooden ceiling of Capella Palatina in Palermo. Double-headed eagle (12th c.) with later repaints

сл. 29. Дрвена таваница капеле Палатина у Палерму. Двоглави орао (12.в) са каснијим додацима

Fig. 30 Initial Q with double-headed eagle. From a manuscript

(Bodleian Library) сл. 30. иницијал Q са двоглавим орлом. из књижне илуминације

(библиотека бодлениана)